1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer capacitor, a taping multilayer capacitor series, and a mounting structure of the multilayer capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multilayer capacitor expands and contracts by the application of voltage due to an electrostriction phenomenon. In recent years, along with the development of downsizing and thinning of a multilayer capacitor, an electrostriction phenomenon has become non-negligible due to an increase in the intensity of an electric field applied to each dielectric layer. When an alternating-current (AC) voltage such as a ripple is applied to a multilayer capacitor mounted on a substrate, expansion/contraction of the multilayer capacitor is transmitted to the substrate, and the substrate thereby vibrates. When the frequency of the vibration of the substrate reaches an audible range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, a noise caused by the vibration is recognized by human ears. This phenomenon is also called “acoustic noise”, and has become a problem in a television, a notebook computer, a mobile phone and the like.
In response to this problem, various techniques for preventing acoustic noise have been proposed. For example, WO2007/080852 A1 discloses a technique that prevents electrostriction from being easily transmitted to a substrate by reducing the size of a facing portion of an internal electrode (a capacitance generating portion in which electrostriction which causes acoustic noise occurs) that faces toward a mounting surface.
However, acoustic noise of a multilayer capacitor may not be sufficiently reduced even if using the technique disclosed in WO2007/080852 A1